Hamas has a new problem and it isn’t the Israelis

It is always dreamlike to see one Islamist terror group accuse the other of being too “lenient” when it comes to enforcing sharia laws. But it is not dreamlike when a terrorist group starts threatening writers and women.

That is what is happening these days in the Gaza Strip, where supporters of the Islamic State are accusing Hamas of failing to impose strict Islamic laws on the Palestinian population — as if Hamas has thus far endorsed a liberal and open-minded approach toward those who violate sharia laws.

Until this week, the only topic Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were talking about was how to rebuild homes and buildings that were destroyed during the last war between Hamas and Israel.

Now, however, almost everyone is talking about the Islamic State threats against poets, writers and women.

It is no secret that the Islamic State has a presence in the Gaza Strip. According to sources there, many disgruntled members of Hamas and other radical salafi-jihadi groups have already joined the Islamic State, with some fighting together with ISIS groups in Syria and Iraq.

Hamas, nevertheless, continues to deny any presence of Islamic State inside the Gaza Strip. “There are no members of Islamic State in the Gaza Strip,” said Eyad al-Bazam, spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

Many Palestinians, however, do not seem to take Hamas’s denials seriously, and remain unconvinced.

Over the past few days, two separate leaflets signed by Islamic State threatened to target Palestinian poets and writers for their “wantonness” and “atheism.” The leaflets mention the poets and writers by name — a move that created panic among many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The leaflets also included an ultimatum to Palestinian women to abide by Islamic attire or face the Islamic State style of punishment — presumably being stoned to death. The threat leaves one with the false impression that, under Hamas, women can wear swimming suits at the beach and walk around the streets of Gaza City in mini-skirts.

But this is what happens when one fundamentalist group believes that the other is not radical enough.

As always Hamas is in denial.

However this development make the establishment of a Palestinian state now very problematic.

A Palestinian journalist has tweeted an image of cement imported into Gaza under the auspices of the UN being sold on the black market.

Hours after 600 tons of cement arrived in Gaza, as part of the reconstruction project following the summer 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, Palestinian journalist Hazem Balousha shared the image.

“Cement came to #Gaza through #UN mechanism and sold out just at entrance of warehouse to the black market,” read the text accompanying the image.

Much of the cement imported into Gaza in the past was diverted by Hamas to build underground tunnels to aid in the terrorist offensive against Israeli targets. Concern that reconstruction materials arriving now will again be used for similar purposes remains high in Israel.

It is pretty hard to build houses when cement sent in is stolen or used by Hamas to build tunnels. I wonder if DryMix would consider sending some of their dodgy cement over.

And then there are the problems with the worlds longest serving bludger agency UNRWA.

UNRWA, to continue its operation, depends on death and the visual suffering of five million Palestinians who continue to wallow in and around UNRWA facilities.

The more Palestinians suffer, the more power goes to UNRWA, which allows it to raise unchecked humanitarian funds and purchase munitions. People ask: Why not abolish UNRWA? Well, this cannot be done.

The only agency that can abolish UNRWA is the UN General Assembly, which has never had the interests of the Palestinian people at heart. After all, the UN rakes in more than $1.2 billion a year as an “incentive” to continue our status as refugees.

Welfare never works…UNRWA has been in existence for over 50 years with no discernible achievements other than allowing their schools and hospitals to be used as combat operations headquarters fro Hamas.

– Jerusalem Post, The Algmeiner, Gatestone institute

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. And when he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet, and as a result he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist that takes no prisoners.